The Nationals are recalling Cade Cavalli from Triple-A Rochester to start tomorrow’s game against the A’s, interim manager Miguel Cairo told reporters (relayed by Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). While the team has not officially announced the move, they did option Andry Lara to open the necessary active roster spot.
Cavalli, a 2020 first-round pick who was once one of the top pitching prospects in the sport, will step on a major league mound for the first time in almost three years. The Nats called him up in August 2022. Cavalli gave up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Reds during his MLB debut. (For perspective on how long it has been, Mike Minor started that game for Cincinnati, while Steve Cishek and Jake McGee came out of the Washington bullpen.) Cavalli came out of that start with shoulder discomfort that ended his season. His elbow blew out the following spring, and he underwent Tommy John surgery.
The road back wasn’t smooth. Cavalli obviously missed the entire ’23 campaign. He made a few attempts to rehab the following season but encountered setbacks and spent that whole year on the injured list as well. Cavalli remained on the IL to open this year and wasn’t officially activated until May 11. The Nats optioned him to Rochester, where they’d be able to more effectively limit his innings after two and a half lost seasons.
Cavalli has made 15 Triple-A starts. He’s averaging 4 1/3 innings per appearance and has only twice completed six frames. Cavalli dominated minor league competition early on but has hit a rough patch. He’s allowed four or more runs in five of his past six starts. That leaves him with an unimpressive 6.09 earned run average on the season. Cavalli’s 25% strikeout rate and near-55% ground-ball percentage are more encouraging. His velocity has also returned to pre-injury levels. He’s averaging nearly 96 MPH on his four-seam fastball and sinker while sitting around 84 with his power curveball.
Now 26, Cavalli was once viewed as a potential mid-rotation starter. He still has that kind of raw stuff, but his command has always been a work in progress. He lost nearly three seasons of development time and faces questions about what kind of workload he’s capable of handling. There’s a chance his long-term future is in the bullpen, but the Nats remain in a rebuild and have little reason to give up on him as a starter right now.
This was Cavalli’s first option season. He has accrued more than two years of service time. The only silver lining from his perspective is that the initial injury occurred after he’d been called up, so he picked up MLB service and was paid a major league salary until he was officially activated from the IL in mid-May. He won’t reach the three-year threshold this season because of the time spent on optional assignment. The Nats control him for another four years.
6 ERA doesn’t really warrant a call up to the bigs
In a microcosm, it’s all relative. Which League, what hitters, are the pitches “good”, what’s the OPS+, so on and so forth. Teams can look past a statistic with ease.
Trevor Rogers pitched bad in Triple A this year before coming up the bigs and dominating
Maybe they want to give him a runway to improve with an eye on next year. Or at least trade fodder in the off season.
Either way it can work out for them. If they lose a few games he starts it’s not a big deal.
But being a former 1st round pick does warrant it…talent is there, team hope he still has it
Nats need a starter and at this point there is no reason not to see what he can do
There’s an early July fangraphs article about how this dude adjusted his pitching and what the results were. So it seems like the nationals like where he is at in the development of that.
A’s scored 16 runs today on 24 hits, this guy has a 6 ERA in AAA. He’s going to throw 5 shutout innings tomorrow guaranteed
I never thought I would say this in 2025 but the athletics have the best offense in all of baseball
Kurtz is hitting like left handed judge, langeliers is the 2nd or 3rd best catcher in baseball, Wilson has fallen off but still is hitting .310, rooker is the best or 2nd best DH not named ohtani
Just kidding rooker is behind schwarber but I rest my case
Their team ops looks low but that was before their players got on fire/called up
Best offense currently not best for the entire season
I don’t think you are right. Just trying to think how many good games he has pitched in his last 6 starts. Think it is one.
Was right. Don’t think he is starter material. Could be very good as a reliever. He and Jake irvin were both drafted out of the university of Oklahoma.
-.3 WAR in one game is impressive. Hopefully this time turns out better
You could look at it like a silver lining that he accrued service time while injured, but it could also be a burden. Now he doesn’t have as much time to prove himself worthy of staying in the majors before he becomes arb-eligible. Prospects are prospects, but once they start earning arbitration salaries they have to have proven they belong or they won’t stick around.
The Nats rebuild is not going well. If it weren’t for the Soto trade, it would be an utter disaster.